So this UR was something. I fully expected Sarkhan to come after the first few paragraphs.
At any rate, I love the butterfly-esque feeling of it, though I wonder if going for the "Let's assume our playerbase doesn't know how causality works and have alternate versions of characters that should never been born in the first place" idea was the right one. It would have been much more interesting and emotionally devastating for Sarkhan to realize that nobody he ever knew exists in the new Tarkir. It would have been to Sarkhan as if he completely erased the plane's entire population from existence. So yeah, I think a realistic approach would have even benefitted the storytelling. Oh well.
Also, the art with the Atarka dragons reminded me of the trolls of homestuck. I don't think I'll ever be able to shed this association.
Now, this post from roughly three weeks later? That's an explicit statement of possibility.
Let's be fair here. Both statements were very explicit. However the first statement was faulty. So in the end it was Maro's mistake, not the people quoting him, because the first tweet leaves no room for interpretation.
It could just be a White vs. White type of thing, where Narset is doing what she thinks is the morally right thing to do by revealing the hidden scrolls to the world. Reading the scrolls could have helped her to recognize the tyranny of the dragons for what it was, and to understand that the humans weren't always subservient to the dragons (nor did they need to be). Both Narset and Ojutai could be doing what they each respectively believe to be in the interests of the greater good, but their viewpoints differ significantly.
Found this picture on the mothership. It feels very planeswalker-y if you ask me!
1) The architecture behind Narset is Jeskai not Ojutai.
2) Narset has same clothes as KTK Narset.
Do we really have an example of Ojutai architecture that shows any dissimilarities it might have in contrast to Jeskai? For now, I'd say that there's an excellent chance this is the base of Narset's planeswalker art. (On the other hand, what's with the white bar at the bottom?)
In today's story we see what looks like a snow capped Jeskai stronghold but more draconic looking and it's possible that it's the influence of Ojutai's changes.
Found this picture on the mothership. It feels very planeswalker-y if you ask me!
1) The architecture behind Narset is Jeskai not Ojutai.
2) Narset has same clothes as KTK Narset.
Do we really have an example of Ojutai architecture that shows any dissimilarities it might have in contrast to Jeskai? For now, I'd say that there's an excellent chance this is the base of Narset's planeswalker art. (On the other hand, what's with the white bar at the bottom?)
Also, does anyone else find it pretty ironic that both the Heartpiercer Bow and the Vial of Dragonfire are invented by Jeskai and used by Mardu/Kolaghan?
Speaking of irony, there's one thing that I find somewhat staggering. If you look at the homelands of each of the clans, most of them actually live in the regions associated with the colour they have lost.
The Jeskai live in mountains, the Sultai in the jungle and the Mardu on the open plains.
Only the Temur and Abzan are living in a habitat that makes sense for the reduced colour-pairs, though a desert seems a bit more black to me than green, but at least the white fits.
Sarkhan: "Screw this world I've always wanted! One person that I barely know may or may not be dead in it! SCREW IT, I say!"
I mean what lol. Tarkir is such a dumb place. Let's just hurry up and get to Magic Origins stuff, because Tarkir's story is nonsensical.
You know, I haven't enjoyed Magic storyline in a big way for quite a while now, but this is the single time I thought one of their plots was unequivocally, eye-rollingly, FUNDAMENTALLY bad. This last Uncharted Realms requires such an astonishing level of disbelief suspension that I just can't do it.
I'm not a fan of straight-faced time travel in general, mainly because in the end I haven't ever seen anyone make it truly believable. But this goes beyond even my worst expectations for this block.
Blah. I hate to be a naysayer, but man, this was BAD.
Also, does anyone else find it pretty ironic that both the Heartpiercer Bow and the Vial of Dragonfire are invented by Jeskai and used by Mardu/Kolaghan?
Speaking of irony, there's one thing that I find somewhat staggering. If you look at the homelands of each of the clans, most of them actually live in the regions associated with the colour they have lost.
The Jeskai live in mountains, the Sultai in the jungle and the Mardu on the open plains.
Only the Temur and Abzan are living in a habitat that makes sense for the reduced colour-pairs, though a desert seems a bit more black to me than green, but at least the white fits.
The deserts of the Abzan seem more white, but they could be construed as black too, I think. As for the Temur, I think their tundras are certainly blue (or at least blue-white). It's an interesting tidbit anyway, and I'm pretty sure it's intentional.
Speaking of irony, there's one thing that I find somewhat staggering. If you look at the homelands of each of the clans, most of them actually live in the regions associated with the colour they have lost.
The Jeskai live in mountains, the Sultai in the jungle and the Mardu on the open plains.
Only the Temur and Abzan are living in a habitat that makes sense for the reduced colour-pairs, though a desert seems a bit more black to me than green, but at least the white fits.
The deserts of the Abzan seem more white, but they could be construed as black too, I think. As for the Temur, I think their tundras are certainly blue (or at least blue-white). It's an interesting tidbit anyway, and I'm pretty sure it's intentional.
Yeah, I meant the secondary colour for the deserts, which to me seems more black than green, but the primary colour would be white.
As for the Temur, I guess it works, even though a frozen landscape doesn't really scream island blue basic land to me. (At least have it be a frozen lake or something.) But the important thing is that the mountains and forests are very prominent, and these are also the colours they are being reduced to.
I predict that Narset wouldn't be affected by the changes 1000+ years ago. She has "seen" it. If anything, she looks like a "heretic" with her new look. Branded a heretic, coz she probably spoke about the events she saw from the past, especially about a world with khans and this goes against the teachings of Ojutai (who written off their history 1000years back).
Noticed that the clothing never changed, despite the hairstyle. The stance and posture. She remains a face of calmness. Unlike Zurgo, I see her getting a card AT THE VERY LEAST. The hairstyle was probably inspired to look like a rabbling madwoman.
I can understand Sarkhan's "obsession" towards Narset. Because he has this feeling that she understood him, and is probably unaffected by the changes in the timeline. To him, she WILL recognize him.
When no one knows you in this world, you become desperate to find one that knows you. A very human feeling.
Why the heck is Sarkhan caring so much about Narset a deal breaker?
Because it makes no sense from his character or the story as a whole.
It's jarring, forced, and distracting.
He knew her for a matter of HOURS and even though they totally had a connection, it's just... nonsensical to be THAT attached to someone you barely met.
Hours? I was always under the impression the journey from Jeskai territory to the Tomb of the Spirit Dragon took quite some time on foot. Besides, Sarkhan had been insane for the longest time and alone. Frankly, it makes a great deal of sense to me for a red character to fixate on his first new friend in the longest time like this. Seriously, I can't be the only one who ended up deeply attached to a kindred spirit very quickly. I'm not even particularly emotional and I've experienced the kind of attachment that's leading to Sarkhan's behavior here.
Also, from a flavor perspective, you're expecting a red aligned dragon worshipping zealot who pledged himself to friggin' Nicol Bolas to be sensical?
Why the heck is Sarkhan caring so much about Narset a deal breaker?
Because it makes no sense from his character or the story as a whole.
It's jarring, forced, and distracting.
He knew her for a matter of HOURS and even though they totally had a connection, it's just... nonsensical to be THAT attached to someone you barely met.
Sarkhan hasn't exactly been the perfect picture of mental health.
Narset could have made enough of an impact to Sarkhan for him to be caring of her. She may have been the first person Sarkhan met who actually cared for him. I think anyone as tortured as Sarkhan would have been instantly attached to that kind of person. She's like someone who offered a cool drink to a person parched for days in the desert.
As for the time travel shenanigans, relax and just enjoy it. It's supposed to make little sense, and is meant to deliver entertainment. It stirs the mind on the possibilities, on the "what ifs."
I suppose some people here have not read time travel stories in comics or novels or watched movies with similar themes. Part of the fun is when one alters the past and change the present/future into something different yet eerily similar to the original timeline.
For someone who grew up reading tales like X-Men: Days of Future Past and Dragonlance Legends, I welcome the interesting time travel elements in the current story line. I just returned to MtG last September 2014 (last set i played was 5th Edition) and I am so glad Tarkir's story is so much like the tales I've read in my childhood days.
I did find it a little disappointing when the Ugin's Fate cards had a reference to Surrak in 1.1. A flux 1,280 years ago should have echoed to the point that lineages are fully scrambled. Then again, preservation of persons (if not their old psyches) isn't exactly a new conceit for time travel. The end of the short story "A Sound of Thunder", which I think was from the 1950s, clearly has the same receptionist as at the beginning. Just with a polar opposite political mentality. Same person, different psyche/upbringing. (Never mind that I sometimes wonder if what Bradbury was up to was a polemic against sport hunting...) It's the sort of thing you have to anticipate in popular fiction's treatment of time travel.
My own preference for time travel is the way "Gargoyles" handled it--everything someone will do via time travel to the past has already transpired (see: Stable Time Loop). Causality is still there, just not as a straight line, but rather intersecting itself at times (and probably existing in at least six dimensions). As Xanatos points out to Goliath at one point, when the latter is only taking the former back to the present because he'd rather not let Xanatos do anything baleful to the time stream in the past: "Don't worry, Goliath. You won't, because you didn't. Time travel's funny that way." Another episode has Goliath blamed for another gargoyle's death in the past, so he uses a time travel device to investigate the situation...only to inadvertantly pull the "dead" gargoyle back to the present with him when he decides there's nothing he can do to save him, in effect causing the situation that inspires his own "future" investigation. That's the sort of thing I was expecting before the Fate Reforged stories--Vol couldn't save Ugin's life, but he could capture Ugin's soul, and guide that and maybe some dragons to his present, where he could somehow reincarnate Ugin (well, Reincarnation is a green spell, and we know Vol can use green magic...).
As to Narset...Keep in mind that at first, dragon resurrection wasn't really on Vol's mind. He came back to Tarkir only to settle the voices in his head. It was effectively Narset who put into his head the idea of restoring dragonkind, something he'd otherwise have dismissed as mere wishful thinking. And right after he appears at the Crux time, he's swearing to Narset that he'll make sure she can have a properly draconian Tarkir. So while he's enjoying Tarkir 1.1 well enough, I can understand why he'd be upset that the one who broached the possibility in the first place is apparently in no condition to enjoy it herself.
I seriously don't understand how this time traveling is supposed to make any sense. I can accept that Sarkhan gets back to the present. What I can't accept is that the timeframe gets just perfectly altered so that we will have different versions of past characters.
I can't think of any story involving time travel where it doesn't work like that.
No one wants an altered timeline that can't be compared to the original one.
I think Taigam's art is similar to Narset's Deflecting Palm. Intriguing. Could be the art of a new technique in DTK.
FRF's flavor is represented in modal cards like Crux of Fate and Valorous stance. Maybe in DTK we'll get to see many alternate timeline version of cards. Mantis Rider becomes Dragon Rider, Ankle Shanker becomes Vial Smasher, etc.
If the story is going on the direction of waking up Ugin, the obstacle might be that 3 planeswalkers and ghostfire will be needed to open up the hedrons. So i'm guessing he'll meetup with Sorin and another PW. My guess is that Narset is a strong candidate for the third. Aside from previous hints, she may be the one with the knowledge on where to find the information on Ghostfire, and they may have to assault/infiltrate Ojutai's stronghold to get ahold of the forgotten, lost teachings.
These are some of the classic time-travel tropes. Seriously, if they didn't do it this way, there'd be significantly more people whining. And besides, we're already seeing that not EVERYTHING is the same and just perfectly altered. Taigam is still with the Jeskai as opposed to leaving and becoming the Sultai's right hand. The formerly dead but now returned Ankleshanker etc. Who knows what else is different. Doctor Who and other shows do this kind of thing regularly.
Never picked that Sarkhan and Narset were sleeping together in old Tarkir. (I assume that's why Sarkhan cares about her)
Totally not even HINTED at! A male and female character need not be romantically involved in a story to care for each other sincerely. The two are simply good friends who formed a connection with one another during difficult circumstances. Two characters can care about each other without bumping uglies or even wanting to.
At any rate, I love the butterfly-esque feeling of it, though I wonder if going for the "Let's assume our playerbase doesn't know how causality works and have alternate versions of characters that should never been born in the first place" idea was the right one. It would have been much more interesting and emotionally devastating for Sarkhan to realize that nobody he ever knew exists in the new Tarkir. It would have been to Sarkhan as if he completely erased the plane's entire population from existence. So yeah, I think a realistic approach would have even benefitted the storytelling. Oh well.
Also, the art with the Atarka dragons reminded me of the trolls of homestuck. I don't think I'll ever be able to shed this association.
Let's be fair here. Both statements were very explicit. However the first statement was faulty. So in the end it was Maro's mistake, not the people quoting him, because the first tweet leaves no room for interpretation.
Do we really have an example of Ojutai architecture that shows any dissimilarities it might have in contrast to Jeskai? For now, I'd say that there's an excellent chance this is the base of Narset's planeswalker art. (On the other hand, what's with the white bar at the bottom?)
The white bar is this structure seen from KTK trailer: https://31.media.tumblr.com/2c461345181b33b7816986ce682a8777/tumblr_inline_n9jzcbacGl1rxk9ia.png
The Ojutai architecture is similar yet different to Jeskai architecture
Speaking of irony, there's one thing that I find somewhat staggering. If you look at the homelands of each of the clans, most of them actually live in the regions associated with the colour they have lost.
The Jeskai live in mountains, the Sultai in the jungle and the Mardu on the open plains.
Only the Temur and Abzan are living in a habitat that makes sense for the reduced colour-pairs, though a desert seems a bit more black to me than green, but at least the white fits.
I'm not a fan of straight-faced time travel in general, mainly because in the end I haven't ever seen anyone make it truly believable. But this goes beyond even my worst expectations for this block.
Blah. I hate to be a naysayer, but man, this was BAD.
The deserts of the Abzan seem more white, but they could be construed as black too, I think. As for the Temur, I think their tundras are certainly blue (or at least blue-white). It's an interesting tidbit anyway, and I'm pretty sure it's intentional.
*****
ricklongo and RicardoLongo on MTGO
*****
Visit my gaming blog: http://www.gamingsweetgaming.blogspot.com
****************
Check out Rick's Picks, my PureMTGO article series
****************
Yeah, I meant the secondary colour for the deserts, which to me seems more black than green, but the primary colour would be white.
As for the Temur, I guess it works, even though a frozen landscape doesn't really scream
islandblue basic land to me. (At least have it be a frozen lake or something.) But the important thing is that the mountains and forests are very prominent, and these are also the colours they are being reduced to.Because it makes no sense from his character or the story as a whole.
It's jarring, forced, and distracting.
Basically I hate it for a similar reason I hate Venser being on Distant Memories.
Noticed that the clothing never changed, despite the hairstyle. The stance and posture. She remains a face of calmness. Unlike Zurgo, I see her getting a card AT THE VERY LEAST. The hairstyle was probably inspired to look like a rabbling madwoman.
I can understand Sarkhan's "obsession" towards Narset. Because he has this feeling that she understood him, and is probably unaffected by the changes in the timeline. To him, she WILL recognize him.
When no one knows you in this world, you become desperate to find one that knows you. A very human feeling.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
He knew her for a matter of HOURS and even though they totally had a connection, it's just... nonsensical to be THAT attached to someone you barely met.
Also, from a flavor perspective, you're expecting a red aligned dragon worshipping zealot who pledged himself to friggin' Nicol Bolas to be sensical?
Sarkhan hasn't exactly been the perfect picture of mental health.
As for the time travel shenanigans, relax and just enjoy it. It's supposed to make little sense, and is meant to deliver entertainment. It stirs the mind on the possibilities, on the "what ifs."
I suppose some people here have not read time travel stories in comics or novels or watched movies with similar themes. Part of the fun is when one alters the past and change the present/future into something different yet eerily similar to the original timeline.
For someone who grew up reading tales like X-Men: Days of Future Past and Dragonlance Legends, I welcome the interesting time travel elements in the current story line. I just returned to MtG last September 2014 (last set i played was 5th Edition) and I am so glad Tarkir's story is so much like the tales I've read in my childhood days.
My own preference for time travel is the way "Gargoyles" handled it--everything someone will do via time travel to the past has already transpired (see: Stable Time Loop). Causality is still there, just not as a straight line, but rather intersecting itself at times (and probably existing in at least six dimensions). As Xanatos points out to Goliath at one point, when the latter is only taking the former back to the present because he'd rather not let Xanatos do anything baleful to the time stream in the past: "Don't worry, Goliath. You won't, because you didn't. Time travel's funny that way." Another episode has Goliath blamed for another gargoyle's death in the past, so he uses a time travel device to investigate the situation...only to inadvertantly pull the "dead" gargoyle back to the present with him when he decides there's nothing he can do to save him, in effect causing the situation that inspires his own "future" investigation. That's the sort of thing I was expecting before the Fate Reforged stories--Vol couldn't save Ugin's life, but he could capture Ugin's soul, and guide that and maybe some dragons to his present, where he could somehow reincarnate Ugin (well, Reincarnation is a green spell, and we know Vol can use green magic...).
As to Narset...Keep in mind that at first, dragon resurrection wasn't really on Vol's mind. He came back to Tarkir only to settle the voices in his head. It was effectively Narset who put into his head the idea of restoring dragonkind, something he'd otherwise have dismissed as mere wishful thinking. And right after he appears at the Crux time, he's swearing to Narset that he'll make sure she can have a properly draconian Tarkir. So while he's enjoying Tarkir 1.1 well enough, I can understand why he'd be upset that the one who broached the possibility in the first place is apparently in no condition to enjoy it herself.
I can't think of any story involving time travel where it doesn't work like that.
No one wants an altered timeline that can't be compared to the original one.
FRF's flavor is represented in modal cards like Crux of Fate and Valorous stance. Maybe in DTK we'll get to see many alternate timeline version of cards. Mantis Rider becomes Dragon Rider, Ankle Shanker becomes Vial Smasher, etc.
If the story is going on the direction of waking up Ugin, the obstacle might be that 3 planeswalkers and ghostfire will be needed to open up the hedrons. So i'm guessing he'll meetup with Sorin and another PW. My guess is that Narset is a strong candidate for the third. Aside from previous hints, she may be the one with the knowledge on where to find the information on Ghostfire, and they may have to assault/infiltrate Ojutai's stronghold to get ahold of the forgotten, lost teachings.
Narset picture gone from mothership. Artwork replaced by Temporal Trespass.
Totally not even HINTED at! A male and female character need not be romantically involved in a story to care for each other sincerely. The two are simply good friends who formed a connection with one another during difficult circumstances. Two characters can care about each other without bumping uglies or even wanting to.